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Joe Gearin
Joe Gearin Associate Publisher
3/17/16 10:29 a.m.

They really should limit how much you can open your throttle......for safety's sake. Accelerating too fast can be dangerous, they shouldn't allow cars to do that.......

java230
java230 HalfDork
3/17/16 10:30 a.m.

And this is what happens when people trust auto braking....

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_47utWAoupo

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 10:35 a.m.

^That's what happens when Volvo sells you a car with auto-park but without pedestrian detection. It wasn't a technical failure, it was an options package problem.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Dork
3/17/16 10:37 a.m.

Has anyone used adaptive cruise control and pedestrian detection to "auto ghost-ride the whip" yet?

MCarp22
MCarp22 Dork
3/17/16 10:47 a.m.

I'm all for cars that stop themselves instead of rear-ending me.

logdog
logdog GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/17/16 11:09 a.m.
Keith Tanner wrote:
logdog wrote: Of course the government/aliens/bad guys from a Bond movie can likely figure out a way to cause traffic jams by pointing lasers at the highway, engaging the brakes, and using the resulting pandemonium to use martial law/take over the planet/steal the expensive jewels from a museum.
Isn't that basically the plot of the original Italian Job? Create a massive traffic jam by messing with the stoplights, then escape from the heist in little nimble cars?

Well, they do say there are no original ideas left

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 11:12 a.m.
Joe Gearin wrote: They really should limit how much you can open your throttle......for safety's sake. Accelerating too fast can be dangerous, they shouldn't allow cars to do that.......

Yes, every car should have 400 hp but only accelerate at 0.25g

Unless you can show proof of advanced driver training and a liability waiver, then you get the red key...

Joe Gearin
Joe Gearin Associate Publisher
3/17/16 11:32 a.m.

No, red is dangerous.....it irritates my eyes! Think of the childrens!!!!!

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 12:04 p.m.

Had the Volvo that hit my Jag a month ago had it I would still have a Jag and not have to deal with all the PITA that goes with that problem. There are to many stupid people driving not to have this.

ultraclyde
ultraclyde UberDork
3/17/16 12:43 p.m.

I'm pretty sure the emergency braking on my wife's Mazda 6 has already saved the front end at least once....

I agree with it being useful without being intrusive. I've never driven the car in autox or track (and won't) but I've driven the heck out of it on the road in traffic and never had a problem. I think it also doesn't do the full-ABS lock unless you're under 45mph or something. It goes to a moderated braking designed to minimize impact.

Although I dearly love the radar cruise, it has a bad tendency to trigger major braking if you're driving beside a semi on the interstate and it drifts near the edge of your lane. It's borderline dangerous, or would be if someone was tailgating you, but it happens infrequently. When passing semis with the cruise on I do hang near the opposite edge of my lane, though.

itsarebuild
itsarebuild GRM+ Memberand Dork
3/17/16 1:06 p.m.

I'll pass. But then again there really wasn't much chance I'd buy a new car anyway.

Brett_Murphy
Brett_Murphy GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
3/17/16 1:17 p.m.

I completely agree that it's useful on the roads.

kanaric
kanaric Dork
3/17/16 1:27 p.m.

lol soon i'm pretty much only going to buy 25 year import cars so bring on the nannyness

will save my old cars from all these people using their iphones will driving

rslifkin
rslifkin Reader
3/17/16 1:30 p.m.

Now that I think about it, I've had one situation where auto braking would have almost definitely reduced my ability to very narrowly avoid punting a CR-V. Then again, had pretty much anything been different in that situation (such as having my snow tires on or not having the over-sensitive ABS disabled or being on stock suspension), I would have hit him. I was really glad I waited until snow was actually forecast to put my snows on this winter, as this happened in mid-December.

Basically, I was doing 50-ish on a road. CR-V was sitting in a side road to the left, waiting to go. And then proceeds to look straight at me and pull out maybe 50 feet in front of me. I nailed the brakes to dump some speed, and then took advantage of the wide spot in the shoulder (it narrows very shortly after this intersection). Eased off the brakes as I swerved over to keep the tires from groaning too much and then got on the throttle once I was in the shoulder. I ended up being able to go around him and keep all 4 tires on pavement, but barely. I'm pretty sure I had well under 2 feet between the corner of his front bumper and the side of my car as he finished his turn into the lane. Once I was in front of him and continued, he just casually kept driving like nothing ever happened.

Given auto-braking, the car likely would have braked hard enough to prevent me from being able to guide myself around him (and there was no possible way to stop in the available distance unless maybe the CRV came into my lane at WOT to reduce the speed difference).

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 1:52 p.m.

I'll bet everyone here has a story about how they totally would have crashed if they had ABS, too

rslifkin
rslifkin Reader
3/17/16 1:55 p.m.
Keith Tanner wrote: I'll bet everyone here has a story about how they totally would have crashed if they had ABS, too

The funny part is, that occurred a few weeks after the too-sensitive ABS started to get flaky and activate randomly, so I had the fuses pulled. I spent most of the day trying to figure out if ABS would have had any significant good or bad impact on the outcome of that situation. The best I could come up with was that it wouldn't have helped (never locked the tires) and there's a chance it would have engaged with the resulting significant reduction in braking power.

LuxInterior
LuxInterior HalfDork
3/17/16 2:17 p.m.

If the pickup that T boned my Miata had auto-brake, he would have been going a few mph slower. That might have meant less damage to my spine.

I hate nannies, but here in The Wake and Bake State, this could be a good thing.

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 2:17 p.m.

If ABS engages, that means that you're past the point of being able to generate better braking force, and it'll only engage on one circuit - usually just one wheel. The best driver in the world has to limit his braking to suit the wheel with the least available traction, ABS allows each wheel to brake to the amount of traction available to that wheel.

rslifkin
rslifkin Reader
3/17/16 2:21 p.m.
Keith Tanner wrote: If it engages, that means that you're past the point of being able to generate better braking force, and it'll only engage on one circuit - usually just one wheel.

With a good ABS implementation, yes. But in an average non-performance vehicle, the amount of tire slip required to trigger an ABS response is tuned based on an all season that may generate max braking at, say, 5% slip and lock up if pushed past that. Now put a sticky summer tire on that will get to 10% slip for max braking force and before locking up and your ABS system actually prevents you from fully using the tire's grip before it intervenes.

I've demo-ed this for people in snow with snow tires on. They take much more slip to generate max braking force than an all season does when on packed snow. With the ABS fuse out, it was possible to stop MUCH faster without locking the tires compared to having the ABS enabled (it would intervene too early and braking power went to crap once it did, regardless of what you did with the pedal).

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 3:09 p.m.

Snow tires are a bit of a weird case because of how they work. Now put one wheel on snow and repeat the test

This automatic braking isn't intended to be a substitute for using the brake pedal, it's a collision mitigation system for someone that's not actually doing anything otherwise. I'm sure we could spend from now until 2022 coming up with ways that we Hero Drivers could do better without it, and of course we never look away from the road to adjust the stereo or check a nav system. It would be interesting to play with different implementations to see how they work, vehicle dynamic engineers are a lot more clever than you think.

92dxman
92dxman SuperDork
3/17/16 3:34 p.m.

As much as i'd hope, the rest of the general public aren't as good as drivers as we are round these parts

outasite
outasite Reader
3/17/16 4:15 p.m.

So……….., if someone passes me and pulls in front of me within 2 car lengths (which happens quite often w/distracted driving and/or using right outside mirror instead of rearview mirror), a car so equipped will auto brake??

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/17/16 9:21 p.m.

If they are going slow enough that the alternative is you slamming into them, yes. Not bumping, having a significant, airbag-deploying accident.

Don't confuse this with radar cruise, which would match speeds in this case as designed.

A better example might be if you were driving through Glenwood Canyon on I70 and a rock the size of a bus comes out of the sky lands on the pavement in front of you. It's happened.

sesto elemento
sesto elemento Dork
3/17/16 9:31 p.m.

Funny story.... This guy was riding my ass and I gave him a little brake check that my car thought was a panic stop, it took over braking and stopped the car. Berkley these systems.

WildScotsRacing
WildScotsRacing Reader
3/17/16 10:44 p.m.
sesto elemento wrote: Funny story.... This guy was riding my ass and I gave him a little brake check that my car thought was a panic stop, it took over braking and stopped the car. Berkley these systems.

Hmmm. I am going to predict that, at some point in the auto-braking future, McDonald's is going to get sued again over too-hot coffee, only this time caused by an overzealous braking system applying an incorrect panic stop.

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